How to get cheap craft beer

Get top craft beer for less with these tricks and deals

I’ve been annoying my friends for what must be close to a decade in my refusal to drink standard lagers. Instead, I’ve been willing to pay more for a beer that tastes (to me) so much nicer. I’ve even made detours (yes, plural) on my honeymoon to try the “best beers in the world”. I love the stuff. But it’s never the cheap choice.

Even though it’s never been more widely available in the UK (both domestic and imported). craft beer is still a lot more expensive than most beers.Bottle shops and specialist online retailers will often charge £2.50 plus for a beer. Yes, it’s great to have so much on offer, but even I baulk at paying £3 for a single bottle.

So I wanted to share with you how I pay less, and I’ll keep updating this page with any special offers I see.

1. Head to the supermarket

In the last couple of years “craft beer” has become so popular that you can pick up a bottle of something half decent at most supermarkets – and that’s good news in terms of pricing.

The little Tesco by my work in Chancey Lane is my favourite place to buy top craft beers. It sells premium imported IPAs from the likes of Oskar Blues (97% on Ratebeer) and Flying Dog for under £2 each. Plus you can also get three for £5, working out at £1.66 a can. These would cost you at least £3 online!

I also love popping into Booths when I visit my in-laws in Ripon, which has an amazing range of beers at really reasonable prices. I’ve picked up Beavertown cans for under £2 each, which is a rare discount.

Another great beer supermarket is Marks & Spencer. They’ve a decent range, including some own brand beers brewed by larger breweries such as Meantime which come in at under £2 a bottle. I picked up a Stone IPA the other day for £2.50Until recently M&S also had a buy six save 25% offer. It ran for years, but now seems to only be for wine. If this comes back I’ll update the page. If your local branch isn’t great, you can buy in bulk online, with the case of 24 Laid Back IPA at £37 (£1.54 a can) really good value.

Even if these rarer / smaller batch beers aren’t available, you should be able to pick up a four cans of Brewdog Punk IPA for £6, or bottles such as Goose Island IPA, Brookyn Lager or Sierra Nevada for around £1.80 at all the main supermarkets as they’ve all got mass export deals. Asda in particular seems to have a really good range at very good prices.

Save even more with discounted gift cards

You can then get additional discounts by using cut-price gift cards bought on Zeek. I’ll use these everytime I shop, saving between 3% and 8% on average at Tesco, M&S, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. Plus if you’ve never used Zeek before you can get an extra £3 credit for your first order with the code CLEVERCASH.

Amazon is also a good place to pick up slightly rarer beers from the likes of Brewdog for around the £1.80 mark, such as Elvis Juice (12 for £21) or Kingpin (12 for £19).

Just make sure it’s not an Amazon Pantry order as that’ll cost you more (unless you’re doing a larger order). You’ll also save if you have Amazon Prime as you’ll get free delivery over £20 (as well as many other benefits – I’m a fan). You can try it free for 30-days, or get free for six months with this student ID trick.

Again, it’s worth checking to see if you can get any additional Amazon discount on top, like the recent £10 off £50 spend on booze or the current £5 bonus on £100 account top ups.

3. Try a beer club or specialist retailer

I’m not a fan of the beer clubs at full price. You’ll pay £3 a beer on average which is more than you need to. Plus, though they are really good for trying new beers, there’s also the risk you’ll want to pour it down the sink (which I’ve sadly done a few times).

Fortunately, there are always new customer offers to start you off – then you can either cancel or, as I do, pause your subscription until there’s a box with beers you really fancy.

Or you can try online bottle shops such as Beer Hawk and Honest Brew. The latter recently had 25% off via Zeek (use the code CLEVERCASH to get an extra £3 off your first order), or you can usually get £10 off your first order.

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